New York, USA
The United Nations is in session when San Monique's
representative, Kananga,
has a British diplomat brutally murdered. Later,
007 rendezvous with Felix
Leiter who is observing Dr. Kananga - a dignitary
from the isle of San Monique. Bond's chauffeur
is written off by a Whisper,
and Felix traces the car to the Oh Cult Voodoo
shop on East 65th Street. Bond tails the hoodlums
into Harlem has a nasty
turn in a restaurant booth on 2nd Avenue and
is faced with Mr. Big - a New York
gangster.

London, UKM wakes Bond at his London home with an urgent assignment. Bond, tucked up with a co-worker - the lovely Miss Caruso of the Italian Secret Service - is disgruntled by the early morning wake up call. M explains that three of their operatives have been murdered in the last 24 hours and 007 is deployed to America to investigate.

San Monique (fictional), The Bahamas
Bond journeys to the island nation of San Monique
where he teams up with Quarrel
Jnr and Rosie
Carver to investigate the death of agent Baines.
Bond suspects that Dr. Kananga is behind it all
and in a shady grove in the heart of the island,
he confronts Rosie. Bond hang-glides by night into
the expansive mansion of Tarot queen, Solitaire,
before freeing her from the clutches of Kananga.
Bond unmasks Kananga's drug dealings and escapes
after a bumpy chase through the windy island roads.
After a the scheme is unveiled in the USA, 007
returns to San Monique to see the end of Kananga
and rescue
the
damsel in distress,
Solitaire.

New Orleans, USA
Bond hails a dodgy cab driver in the pay of Mr. Big
to the Royal Orleans hotel. Predictably, 007 does
not meet with Felix but is taken to the small
Lakefront Airport where he gives a 'flying' lesson
whilst avoiding Mr. Big's goons.
Bond and Felix check out the Fillet of Soul restaurant
on Docker street in the centre of town before 007
is let down into the underground hideout of Mr.
Big. Tee Hee escorts Bond to the swamplands where
Kananga keeps crocodiles. Bond escapes the croc-pen
and takes on the Louisiana Police and Kananga's
men in a speed-boat get-away along the Bayou river.

Shooting Live And Let Die
Filming began in October 1972, less than two months after Roger
Moore had been announced as the third actor to fill 007's
shoes. Guy Hamilton rolled
cameras on "Live And Let Die" on location in the
USA - shooting the Dixieland funeral sequence, on the corner
of Charter and Durmaine Street in the French Quarter of New
Orleans.

By mid-October, 007 was on the Bayou
shooting the extensive boat chase throughout the striking
Louisiana
riverside. At Crawdad Bridge, 007's speedboat makes
a massive jump - bringing himself to the
attention of Sheriff
JW. The massive chase covered over 30 miles of water
in the process of filming "Live
And Let Die".

Above: Roger Moore's debut outing casts
the spotlight on the USA.

In November, the production encountered a minor
setback when Roger Moore suffered a kidney stone problem
- delaying Hamiltonís location shoot and causing the production
to juggle filming to capture pick-ups for the film without its
star.

Moore was trained in pre-production for over
three months in order to participate in a slim portion of Bondís
rip-roaring chase onboard an old-fashioned double-decker bus.
Doubling for
the mythical San Monique, Jamaica was host to the filmmakers
during December 1972. Stunt drivers
threw the bus under the Johnson Town Bridge in Lucea, Jamaica
a few days later on December 7th. Roger Moore paid Ross Kananga,
the crocodile wrangler, a visit just
before Christmas. It was at the Jamaican Safari
Village in Falmouth
Lagoon that the real-life Kananga filled 007ís shoes to make
the daring jump across the backs of the chomping crocs.

Above: Bond's travels see him journey
from the bustling streets of NYC to the shady tropics of
fictional San Monique. Then in the southern states
of America, Bond hits the Bayou before returning to the
tropics for
the final confrontation with Kananga.

After Christmas, Hamilton and his crew returned
to Pinewood to shoot with Lois Maxwell and Bernard Lee at the
set that would reveal 007ís London apartment for the one and
only time thus far. The crewís last stop was New York City where
the logistical problems of shooting in Harlem hounded the crew.
Ultimately, the first unit captured more than expected including
a couple of set piece fights on location at 117th Street and
the exteriors of the Oh Cult Voodoo shop on 33 East 65th Street.

Fan Facts
Despite some staggering stunts and the tropical flare of "Live
and Let Die", the scenery of Moore's first outing somehow
fails to wow the fans. Jamaica has been host to the Bond production
on
numerous
occasions but the back-drop of the likes of "Dr.
No" and "Casino Royale" impressed
voters far more than the mysterious San Monique or the rugged
NYC sequence.